Although this is a well made documentary incorporating archive footage, interviews and 'dramatizations', it seems to me to be yet another example of the victors re-writing history. If I was a bomb- obsessed war-monger that wanted to conduct the ultimate experiment in nuclear technology and military power, even when it was not necessary, I would make a film like this to justify my actions and help make an entire nation feel much better about committing mass murder. This has been the official line since the bombs were dropped and they have successfully convinced most people that they were absolutely necessary. Otherwise, the idea of murdering close to 200,000 civilians is just impossible to confront. I think this is encapsulated by the poor, tight-lipped pilot who stubbornly refuses to have any emotion or doubt about his actions. This film seems to be for people like him.It's almost certain that these bombs were unnecessary. Thousands of tonnes of bombs had already been dropped, the Soviets had become involved and Japan was beaten. Weeks earlier, on July 12, 1945, Hirohito revealed that he was ready to end the war as long as the monarchy be granted immunity from war crimes - The US only accepted these conditions after dropping two atomic bombs on the country. One bomb was unnecessary, the second was borderline sadistic. Truman and others kept bumping up estimates of lives saved to a million, while military documents suggested 46,000 as a worst case scenario. There is virtually no mention of these circumstances in the film which demonstrates clear bias. If you come away thinking it was necessary, then the film has successfully deceived you, but it has failed as a documentary.

There was a comment in this film about the compassion and the Japanese. I realize that many people died in the two blasts and that many died subsequently. In all of my readings I have never seen any instance of Japanese compassion. It is though the nation was born without it. I have viewed the Japanese people of that time as automatons to their Emporer, willing to die but not live. I am slightly older than the use of these two bombs and nothing will convince me that millions of Japanese would have been enlisted to fight any invasion, including school girls. The leaders of Japan seemed to view their citizens as fodder. We can imagine the reaction around the world if Truman had not used these bombs. He would have been castigated. I thought the puny power of these bombs compared to today's H-bombs should have been mentioned. Now the circle of death reaches out over 20 miles.

Being once a former History student, history-relating subjects are often of interest to me. Especially if it's something which I had learnt in my past History classes. The fall of Japan in WWII was one of those things I learnt.Imagine my surprise when I saw this on air here last year. Given it was also a good time to refresh somehow some of the events I had learnt from my History textbook, this show viewed the atomic bomb dropping on Hiroshima through the eyes of those who had survived to tell their story. Whatever I had understood in the History class was through the events in the textbook, this is more raw and humane for a change.It's always scary to understand about the after-effects of the atomic bomb that often it's only those who experienced, and survived to tell the tale, will give a very different perspective. Even more terrifying, hearing from the survivors themselves. Yeah, often it's being discussed normally close to the WWII's anniversary that whether it is justified to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to finally force Japan to end WWII in the Pacific region, but then, this is still a topic which is very touchy even till now.Given I also remembered my father once went to Japan for business for some time and he did went to the memorial centre in Hiroshima and when he brought back the brochure, I almost felt sick. At the contents, that is. When it showed the images and the graphics in the brochure, I cannot really bear to see it after one look.Often, the horrors of war remains in those who had went through it. It's always never nice.If you are one of those who want to know how the whole thing went before WWII finally ended in the Pacific, this is recommended.

Have just watched the film with an eye to my history class and found it very good dramatically. I was kicking myself for losing another film of the same name that was more of a film and which demanded more from their actors; to see Truman in this version portrayed by a man twice his size with no physical or vocal similarity was a big disappointment whereas the older film's resemblances to him and the other two of the Big Three was uncanny. To compare the lack of concern in this regard to the care the BBC took with its Dunkirk where Churchill and Lord Halifax were lovingly portrayed is further frustrating. The graphics are outstanding as one would expect from the BBC; if you've seen its Auschwitz, Colosseum or Pompeii titles you'll know what high quality to expect. One quibble would be the lack of any mention of Japanese atrocities. Living and working in China with family who suffered from Japanese barbarism, I was dismayed to see Japanese bestiality whitewashed to portray them as the victims. Maybe one day someone will do a BBC-type Rape of Nanking to redress the balance. In the meantime, without bothering to fully explain why the Americans (and the British and Commonwealth who took on the Japanese too, a fact ignored by the British broadcasting Corp.)truly hated the Japanese is disingenuous. No real mention made too of the bomb in the context of the start of the Cold War, or how Nagasaki was probably more a warning to Stalin who had just invaded Japan with an eye to joint-occupation a la Germany makes this a rather one-dimensional analysis. Great value must be placed on the interviews of so many witnesses, particularly Tibbets and the last man to have actually have touched Little Boy. www.tracesofevil.blogspot.com